'Wu Assassins' Gives Netflix New Footing in Streaming's Battle Royale

Enter Wu Assassins, which launches on the streaming service today—an unprecedented vehicle for star Iko Uwais, and a telling glimpse of the fighting technique Netflix intends to deploy in its own upcoming battle royale.If Uwais looks familiar, it's because he starred in one the few breakout martial-arts films of the past decade, 2011's The Raid: Redemption. (Who among us, right?) Five warlords are converging on San Francisco, each having been corrupted by the element they embody, and it's up to Kai to defend Chinatown by defeating them all; he takes on the appearance of an older monk (Mark Dacascos) while fighting, but Uncle Six happens to be one of those warlords, and won't rest until he finds the mysterious old man who's taking out his employees.That catalyzing concept alone encompasses a film festival's worth of martial-arts conventions, from your quintet of boss-level enemies (Five Deadly Venoms) to your elemental fighting styles taken from Taoist framework (Avatar: The Last Airbender) to your mild-mannered protagonist who finds himself in possession of mystical powers. Faced with that void and that competition, it's little wonder that Netflix sees a future in martial-arts action shows.